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To report on the process of redesigning a previously inaccessible room in the center of Emerson College’s Iwasaki Library for student use.

Library staff solicited input from multiple stakeholders through informal suggestion boards; conversations with staff and faculty; a 3-hour Participatory Design Workshop (PDW) with students, both undergraduates and graduates from multiple departments; and a month-long collaboration with a Business Studies class. A particular emphasis was placed on student input in the design process because of their status as the library’s primary users.

It was not possible to incorporate all of the students’ suggestions into the final design: particularly the requests for a homey, “living room” feel. However, through repeated inquiry, the library was able to find a match between some of the things students wanted and what the library could provide, namely a flexible event and study space.

Although libraries do not often have the opportunity to “expand” with their existing footprints, this chapter will be of use to other libraries planning an expansion or renovation. Library expansion is often dependent on well-documented need and student voices can have a high impact and, therefore, should play a critical role in the design process.

The deadhead subculture – centered around the band Grateful Dead – has been active for 50+ years. Despite its longevity, academic work is sparse compared to other music subcultures. Given its durability and resilience, this subculture offers an opportunity to explore subcultural development and maintenance. I employ a contemporary, symbolic interactionist approach to trace the development of deadhead subculture and subcultural identity. Although identity is a basic concept in subculture research, it is not well defined: I suggest that the co-creation and maintenance of subcultural identity can be seen as a dialectic between collective identity and symbolic interactionist conceptions of individual role-identity.